The Six Most Common HRIS Mistakes

In today’s corporate/business world, one of the most common and highly significant tools is the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) software. With the help of an effective HRIS software you can lower your administrative burden, drive productivity gains, increase efficiencies, improve employee retention rates, and maximise morale.

When you take the effort of implementing HRIS software in your organisation, it helps to smoothly manage all of your employee information, track job applicants, configure insightful reporting, and is capable of interfacing and/or communicating with various other business systems.

Thus, when the need for this kind of software is so large, it is not uncommon for inexperienced businesses to make a mistake at the time of the software selection process. This article discusses some of the most common HRIS software mistakes made by companies both large and small. According to a study on change initiatives carried out by PwC, around 75 percent of organisations fail to fulfil their HRIS objectives and goals.

1. Rushing into Decision Making

One of the most common made mistakes is the general tendency to rush into a decision. A rushed decision when selecting a HRIS  vendor will have lasting negative implications on your business. One of the most significant aspects  to keep in mind is to take proper time and delve deep into the business needs. Draft a comprehensive list of requirements. This will help you to compare with the capabilities of potential vendors. This step is very important, as the entire objective of switching to a new HRIS vendor or adopting HRIS software is to improve your business processes to help your employees lessen their workload.

2. Failing to Consult Employees

Another common mistake is to only seek the opinions of higher-level decision makers within your organisation. There’s no doubt that you must consult the people who are responsible for selecting and owning an HRIS; however, you must remember that the opinions and user experience of lower level employees are just as important if not m0re when to comes to usher adoption. These are the individuals who will be using the software hands-on every day and they are the ones who are facing the downside of not having a proper solution in place. The perspective of these employees will be different from that of the higher management and thus it may lead you to add an item or two to your list of HRIS needs. Sometimes the requirements are met but it’s the execution of the process that makes or breaks it  Hold company-wide meeting at various stages during the software selection process. This makes your employees feel included and thus they become more willing to accept the change.

3. Considering Limited Vendors

Similar to making any major decision in your life, it’s a good idea to consider several options before you zero down on one particular HRIS vendor. You should ideally consider vetting six to nine vendors before you take a look at any demos. This will help you gain a detailed knowledge of the HRIS landscape and you will be able to accurately determine the unique aspects of every vendor and the industry standard as well. For instance, if you consider let’s say just one or two vendors, you may find a payroll feature that you find useful for your company, but the price offered by the vendor may be too much. In such a situation, if you take a look at other vendor options, you may find the same feature being offered by another vendor at a price that fits into your budget.

4. Considering Only the Current Needs

Another common mistake that companies make at the time of selecting an HRIS software is to take into consideration their present needs. If you tend to do that without paying attention to the future needs of your company, it will reduce the lifespan of your HR software solution drastically. On the other hand, if you select a solution that focuses on future development and growth, you would be making a successful investment. Considering the pace with which technology is advancing these days, it is essential to consider the flexibility and scalability of SaaS products in order to keep up with the advancements. You must assess your vendor’s ability to add new features to the product as you definitely want a longer shelf life from the former.

5. Failing to Assess Data Security

Before you make your final decision of selecting an HRIS software, it is very important that you assess each of the vendor’s data security capabilities. This is non negotiable in todays climate. Most organisations fall short in this particular aspect during the selection process. They fail to assess the security of their data while selecting a particular vendor and this leads to data security lapses later. Irrespective of the type of data at your disposal, you must protect it by all means. Hence it is important that you ensure that a particular vendor is capable of protecting your data. You must look for answers pertaining to the security of data in transit as well as at rest and also collect reports on the data security of a particular vendor that you may have selected.

6. Failing to Assess the Impact of Change in HRIS Software

Many a times you fail to assess the impact of a change in the HRIS software after you decide upon a vendor. When you fail to do so, it can undermine the potential return on investment that this change was supposed to bring about. Often poor internal communication within the company and poor employee training both before and after the change is implemented is one of the common mistakes that companies commit. The only solution to this issue is to be proactive about preparing the entire organisation for the change before implementing the new HRIS solution. You should also train your employees properly before you implement the new solution. This will facilitate smooth transition from the old process to the new HRIS solution in a seamless manner.

All the above mentioned HRIS software mistakes are commonly prevalent in today’s business world at the time of software selection. The only way in which you can deal with these mistakes is to do your homework properly before investing in a solution and to be proactive at every stage of the software selection process.

In the world of HR software, EmployeeConnect continues to be one of the leading industry providers of innovative solutions. We helps Australia business owners and people managers be more efficient, cost-effective and compliant by taking the hassle out of HR and payroll admin. If you spend more than an hour every day on HR administration (like on/off-boarding, performance review, or employee timesheets), then EmployeeConnect is here for you.